Founding of Mission La Purísima Concepción

On December 8, 1787, the Franciscan order established Mission La Purísima Concepción under Padre Fermín Lasuén, president of the Franciscan missions. The date was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which gave the mission its name. It was founded as the eleventh in the chain of Spanish Missions in California, at a site known to the Chumash as Algsacpi and to the Spanish as the plain of Río Santa Rosa, one mile south of Lompoc. Because Lompoc was so small, the Viceroyalty of New Spain granted an exception to its rule that no California mission be established within seven miles of any pueblo.